Green Knights unlikely run ends with another District 11 2A title.

A frustrated Paul Reduzzi watched the Pen Argyl film from its Week 5 loss at Southern Lehigh.

The same coach coaching the same team a week later was thrilled while watching Pen Argyl rack up an impressive win over Northern Lehigh.

If you thought you had the 2012 Pen Argyl football team all figured out, you had to keep checking back because the impressions they left on you changed almost weekly.

Two things that didn't change, according to Reduzzi, were the assistant coaches' abilities to prepare the players and the players' effort regardless of the score or game situation.

Amazingly, Pen Argyl's amusement ride of a season — which began with just three primary starters returning from the 2011 District 11 Class 2A champion team — ended in the same place as the previous campaign.

The Green Knights repeated as district titlists and advanced to the PIAA quarterfinals before losing to a District 12 private school.

"We've really had three years in a row where everything regarding football was a positive, enjoyable situation," Reduzzi said.

For organizing a staff and roster into improbable district champions despite low numbers and numerous injuries, Reduzzi is The Morning Call's All-Area Coach of the Year.

Pen Argyl finished 11-3 overall, 8-2 in the Colonial League.

"Knowing what you and your assistants worked on in practice, the talks you had at halftime and after tough days at practice paid off is very rewarding," Reduzzi said.

Pen Argyl saw its league winning streak end at 18 games with the loss at Southern Lehigh and its league home winning streak snapped at 13 games by Catasauqua.

The Green Knights also lost two offensive linemen, fullback-linebacker Mike DePaolo, quarterback Ryan Hunt and others to injuries at different points in the season, plus standout four-year starter Mikey Racciato played with a banged-up hip most of the season.

But when the playoffs came around, the Green Knights became road warriors and put a hurting on previously unbeaten Tamaqua and Catasauqua to win their second district title in a row.

It was a performance that left Reduzzi stunned as Pen Argyl players and coaches collected their gold medals on a cold Saturday night in November at Alumni Field in Catasauqua.

"There were two different styles of coaching [the last two years]," Reduzzi said. "A team like 2011, you can try different techniques and schemes and just try to elevate their performance to be better than it was the previous year.

"This year, it makes you do a better job coaching the fundamentals. It was more challenging."

And more rewarding, for sure.

Working with 31 healthy bodies for most of the season limited what Reduzzi and his staff (Donnie Hawk, Roy Cortez, Dave Barr, Kris Otranto, Jason Keenhold, Eric Sampson, Steve Ruggiero, Jeff Detzi, Jason Grim and Gary Heard) can do when injuries occur.

Reduzzi was forced to put a 5-foot-6, 125-pound sophomore defensive back into a Week 7 game against Catasauqua., which had the Colonial League's two best wide receivers in Paryss Marshall and Alex Parker.

He also had to put in a 5-10, 190-pound first-year varsity senior lineman into a Week 6 game against Northern Lehigh.

Though both players — and others — gave 100 percent and were prepared, the results often were mixed.

But they were good enough when it mattered most.

Reduzzi doesn't expect the numbers crunch to ease up any time soon. He's hoping at least 15 of the 25 junior-high players come out for the varsity next season to help with what was this year the smallest freshman class (enrollment-wise) in school history.

He's also hoping for more players like Tanner Geake, Alan Lancaster, Jeff Holden and Ricky Johnson, who all had to wait until their senior seasons to get a varsity start. But wait and work they did.

"We had some kids who realized the talent ahead of them was going to prevent them from playing until they were seniors so a lot of them didn't stick around," Reduzzi said of the 2011 and 2012 seasons. "They don't want to be JV players, which is disappointing but where there are today."

Where Pen Argyl is today is amazingly similar to where it was at the end of the 2011 season.